2019 US Open Spotlight: Felix Auger-Aliassime

By Erin Maher / Monday, March 11, 2019

World No. 58 Felix Auger-Aliassime stunned the tennis world on Saturday by defeating world No. 10 Stefanos Tsitsipas, 6-4, 6-2, in the pair's second-round match at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif.

The 18-year-old from Canada, who is the youngest player in the draw, managed to defeat Great Britain’s Cameron Norrie, 6-3, 6-2, to secure his spot in Round 2.

Auger-Aliassime’s most recent wins continue his early-season success in 2019. He started the year ranked at world No. 108, and has since ascended 50 spots thanks to reaching his first ATP Tour final, at the Rio Open, and advancing to the quarterfinals in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

- Auger-Aliassime had a very successful junior career, ascending to as high as world No. 2 in June of 2016. He captured the US Open boys’ doubles title with compatriot Denis Shapovalov in 2015, and went on to win the boys’ singles title in 2016. En route to that trophy, he defeated Tsitsipas in the semifinals.

- While he notched major wins on the hard courts of Flushing Meadows during his junior tenure, Auger-Aliassime has not seen the same results at the Open since turning pro in 2017. That year, Auger-Aliassime failed to qualify, and in 2018, after qualifying for what remains his only Grand Slam main-draw appearance, he was forced to retire from his first-round match against Shapovalov, citing a heart issue.

- While he may not have had the US Open results he was looking for in 2018, the year proved to be full of progress for the young player. He reached a career high nine times in the ATP rankings, as well as capturing his fourth Challenger title at Tashkent, making him the second-youngest player to win four Challenger titles.

- Auger-Aliassime became the youngest player to ever win a main-draw match on the ATP Challenger Tour, when in 2015, the then-14-year-old managed to make it all the way to the quarterfinals in Granby, Canada.

They Said it!

"I wasn’t sure what to expect. I definitely didn’t expect to win that way, but I believed in myself, was able to impose my game like I did in the first round, and that’s it." – Auger-Aliassime, after defeating Tsitsipas at the BNP Paribas Open on Saturday.